Teaching for mastery according to the Novare Science mastery-learning model involves a number of practices teachers must attend to. In 2017, John D. Mays, founder of Novare Science, began offering a 2.5-day Summer Mastery Workshop devoted to teaching according to the mastery model John had developed. In 2020, Novare Science became part of Classical Academic Press. With this transition, John was interested in making the content of the workshop available to a larger audience, with the convenience and low cost provided by the online environment. This course is the result. The course covers all of the relevant content from John’s in-person workshop, and from his 2021 book, From Wonder to Mastery.

The default for science teachers seems to be that we teach what’s in the text, which usually means teaching the scientific facts and theories—the content of science. However, if we are to be faithful shepherds of the students in our care, we need to do much more with them than simply teaching what’s going to be on the test. Science instruction relates to discipleship, to discovery of theological truth in creation, and to spiritual growth. Moreover, accessing science content through a text is only one of numerous ways we have of interacting with creation. We can also interact with creation through visual art, through song, through poems and literature, through meditation, and through contemplation. Effective science instruction enriches the class with all these different modes of learning and growing. In this series, we explore some of the many ways we can lead our students into a fuller experience of God’s creation, beyond the things we find in our science textbooks.

In 1999, Novare Science founder John D. Mays began teaching in a classical Christian school, only to discover a complete lack of literature on teaching science classically. John set out to develop the pedagogical principles for classical science instruction and to make a contribution to this essential teaching field. Much of what John discovered is presented in his book, From Wonder to Mastery. In 2020, John began musing on the question, What advice would I give to a science teacher who was new to the classical Christian education tradition? Clearly, the principles he had already published would be part of the answer to this question. However, it was also clear that for Christian education, there were additional vital elements that must be included. A clue to what some of these vital elements are is seen in the titles of the first two sessions of this series—Love and Gift, crucial words for both teachers and students to consider as they meditate on the meaning of creation and science, and as they seek to improve their understanding of the trinitarian God of Christian faith. John identified 10 words (and their explanations, of course!) that he would want to pass on to new teachers. Unpacking these 10 words is what this video series is about.